News & Events

Region IV Mitigation Conference November 2006
- CUSEC participated in a conference of State Hazard Mitigation
Officers and Earthquake Program Managers on November 6-9. The
conference was held at the FEMA Region IV Headquarters in Atlanta,
Georgia and featured sessions on different hazard mitigation programs
that have occurred in the different states. Among highlighted programs
was the Memphis, Light, Gas & Water mitigation project, where
several facilities were retrofitted to mitigate against seismic
hazards. A side meeting at the conference included State Earthquake
Program Managers from Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North
Carolina, and South Carolina. Topics discussed included: NEHRP
Updates, State Updates, Training Initiatives, Catastrophic Planning
development, and more. This side meeting also included representatives
from CUSEC, FEMA Headquarters, FEMA Region IV, IEM, and the MAE-Center.

New Staff at CUSECOctober 2006
- CUSEC has hired two new staff members recently. Alisa Nave, Public
Outreach Coordinator, will work to increase CUSEC's public awareness
and outreach efforts. She comes to CUSEC after working with
International Paper, in Memphis, Tennessee. Ms. Nave earned her
bachelors degree in Business Administration from the University of
Tennessee at Martin. She has also minored in Journalism at the
University of Memphis. Alisa is the editor of the new CUSEC
Newsletter, which is distributed by email on a quarterly basis. Also new to CUSEC is Paul Hogue, Exercise and Training
Officer. Paul comes to CUSEC from the Arkansas Department of Emergency
Management, where he served as Training Coordinator and more recently
as Operations Officer. At CUSEC, he will be responsible for creating
and updating training courses to support the CUSEC Member States. He
will also work with the States to coordinate their earthquake exercise
activities. Paul is a veteran of the United States Army, where he
served three enlistments as a Signals Intelligence Analyst. Please
join us in welcoming Alisa and Paul to the CUSEC Staff.

CUSEC Board Member RetiresJune 2006 - At the June 7 CUSEC Board Meeting, Director Robert
Latham announced his retirement from the Mississippi Emergency Management
Agency, effective
July 1, 2006. Director
Latham was the CUSEC Board Chairman from March 2004 to December 2005
and has played an active role in promoting earthquake mitigation, awareness,
planning, and research in the CUSEC states since joining MEMA and
beginning his tenure on the CUSEC Board in February 2000. Since
his appointment as State Director, Director Latham has overseen MEMA
during 11 presidential
disaster declarations, including Hurricane Katrina. Latham had
previously served with the Mississippi National Guard for 26 years,
retiring in 1995 with the rank of Sergeant Major and was the director
of Tate County Emergency Management from 1994 until his appointment
as State Emergency Management Director in 2000. David Paulison,
acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called
Latham
one of the "nation's finest emergency management leaders." "Mr.
Latham was pivotal to the recovery goals achieved in Mississippi in
the months
following Hurricane Katrina," Paulison said. For
the full news article from the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi,click
here.

Centers
for Disease Control Launches EMAC PageJune 2006
- A
new webpage has recently been launched on the Centers for Disease
Control
and
Prevention (CDC) Emergency Preparedness and Response
website that provides information on the Emergency Management
Assistance Compact (EMAC) and the EMAC Environmental Health
Assistance Project. Currently, 49 states, two territories and the District
of Columbia are signatories to EMAC, which was ratified by Congress
in 1996. This informational page can be accessed at www.bt.cdc.gov/planning/emac.

Summer
Workshops AnnouncedMay 2006 - CUSEC
is providing two different summer workshops in 2006. The
first workshop will be an ATC20
Post-Earthquake Safety Evaluation of Buildings
course that teaches attendees how to evaluate buildings for safe occupancy
after an earthquake. This program is useful in other disasters
as well. Typically,
after a disaster, emergency management officials work with trained
volunteer inspectors such as engineers, architects, or building inspectors
to identify
the safety of critical facilities and residential structures. This
course will be held on June 12, 2006 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Next
is an Earthquake Non-Structural
Mitigation workshop which will be held
in Memphis, Tennessee on June
19, 2006 and again in St. Louis, Missouri
on July 27, 2006. These workshops will provide attendees with
basics of structural vs. non-structural elements, non-structural hazards,
non-structural mitigation practices, and mitigation funding sources. Meeting
space for the workshops is being generously provided by MLGW in Memphis
and A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. in St. Louis. To
register or for
more information, please contact CUSEC.

1906
Earthquake 100th Anniversary ConferenceApril 2006 - CUSEC is a co-sponsor of the conference
commemorating the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, which left
many legacies for California,
including anticipation of the next, inevitable, great quake. The
100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference will bring together
earthquake professionals
from around the world – scientists, engineers and preparedness
experts – in San Francisco on April 18, 2006, to commemorate the
1906 Earthquake, review what we have learned, and discuss what we can
do to further preparedness. This conference will have it's main
focus on California. But the lessons and policies will ripple to quake-sensitive
regions worldwide, and affect preparations for all natural disasters. Visit
the 1906eqconf.org website
for more information.

Earthquakes in the Central US on TVFebruary
2006 - The Weather Channel recently started a series of television
programs entitled "It
Could Happen Tomorrow", which looks at which looks
at the potential for catastrophic disasters impacting various parts of
the US. One of those program focus areas is the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
This special on the New Madrid will air on March 12, 2006 at 9:30PM EST. Also,
the History Channel and National Geographic are producing a specials on
the New Madrid. The History Channel was recently at the CUSEC office,
filming for their special. The program is tentatively set to air around
the end of May 2006. No word on when the National Geographic program
will air yet.

Earthquake
Awareness - February 1-10, 2006January
2006 - The CUSEC Member States of Arkansas,
Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee will be having varying earthquake
awareness activities February 1-10, 2006. Indiana is holding several
activities throughout the week, and Kentucky is holding an Earthquake
Town Hall Meeting and having a training
workshop that will teach
attendees how to inspect buildings for potential seismic hazards. Missouri
is holding a Business & Industry earthquake awareness program and
hosting an earthquake exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center on February
4, 2006,
among other activities. For
more information on activities in Missouri, contact the Missouri Earthquake
Program Manager, Steve
Bessemer. For information about activities in other Member
States, contact their Earthquake
Program Manager.